It is often desirable to be able to quickly, without the need for mechanical fasteners and tools, be able to separate, or attach, a motor-driven shaft, from or to, the shaft of a device to be driven by the motor. Such a need exists, for example, in the medical field where pumps are used for surgical purposes, such as the irrigation of a patient. In these situations, for reasons of contamination, the pump must be discarded and replaced with another pump after each use.
In the past, one solution to the problem was to provide a totally disposable pump and motor unit such that after use, the entire unit was discarded. However, such is an expensive practice because the unit, particularly the motor portion thereof, could not inexpensively be made, even though it was intended for disposal. Attempts to reduce the costs of such units were at the expense of reliability, a characteristic which cannot be compromised in the medical, operating room, environment.
The other alternative has been to merely provide permanent motors on site at the hospital or the like, and provide disposable pump units to be attached to the motor shaft for use, and to be thereafter disassembled and discarded. While such assuaged the cost and reliability problems, the attachment of the pump to the motor shaft and the disassembly thereof fostered further problems. Because such required the use of mechanical fasteners and tools, and somewhat of an intricate knowledge of proper shaft coupling, most people, such as someone on the medical staff of a hospital, could not perform, or would not have the time to perform, the procedure. Therefore, each time a pump had to be changed, a mechanic or maintenance person would be needed to perform the task, which could not be performed in a matter of minutes. Thus, this alternative resulted in labor-intensive costs and time-consuming delays.
Thus, the need exists for a system to be able to quickly connect, or disconnect, a pump or other device to, or from, a motor-driven shaft.